


A Visit from Germany

by e_cat



Category: All For the Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: I wish he understood Andrew better too, M/M, Nicky is an idiot when it comes to realizing how serious Neil and Andrew are, he also needs to work on his impulse control, he's lucky Neil won't let Andrew kill him, so much of this is chaos and arbitrary plot decisions, there were points when it made me wince a little to write what Nicky thought about Andrew, this is literally done - I just have to edit it for AO3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-26
Updated: 2016-05-03
Packaged: 2018-06-04 16:16:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 7,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6665560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/e_cat/pseuds/e_cat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Not too long after Andrew and Neil finally make it onto the same team, Nicky and Erik come for a visit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is basically from tumblr, with a few minor edits. Anonymous asked "Could you write about Nicky and Erik visiting Neil and Andrew at their apartment from Germany and staying with them and Nicky is just floored because he never thought he'd see his cousin so domestic and just ok with life and he's so happy to see the way N&A are together and that they're so happy I just need this" and I got a little carried away and ended up with seven parts. I'm going to slowly make my way through editing and post them as I do.
> 
> (Each part was written for the writing challenge my roommate and I are doing, where we have to incorporate two words/phrases from a list we made, so I'll include the words in the notes for each chapter, in case anyone is curious.)
> 
> Oh, yes, also - characters belong to Nora Sakavic.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nicky and Erik arrive at the airport, and are very overtired.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (I had to edit this into past tense, which was a pain, and I hated it. I hated writing it in present in the first place, and I don't know why I did. Let me know if there was anything that accidently got left in the wrong tense.)
> 
> The words for this one were "shadow" and "downfall."

It was four-thirty in the morning, and Nicky didn't think he'd ever been more excited or more exhausted in his life. He’d also probably never been more nervous.

He and Erik made their way to baggage claim as a two-headed, four-legged creature. It was impossible to tell at this point who was leaning more on whom, but that hardly mattered. Here was what did matter: they were leaning on each other, just as they always would, and they were together, just as they always would be. It was nice, Nicky thought, not for the first time, not to have to any doubts about that.

“What time did Neil say they were picking us up?” Nicky slurred at Erik, tilting his head back and nosing along the 5-o’clock shadow sprouting there. He asked in German, because that had become automatic a long time ago.

“Huh?” Erik responded, blinking at him as he attempted to sluggishly connect synapses and understand the question. Nicky was too tired to repeat it, choosing to watch as Erik thought his way through instead. “Oh,” Erik said finally, “10:45, I think.”

Nicky scrunched up his face. “That’s so far away,” he whined, but he felt like he was missing something. It wasn’t until he caught a glimpse of the board of arrival times that it clicked: he was still thinking in German time. Overtired and relieved, he broke down into hysterical laughter, and nearly fell to the floor as Erik almost didn’t react quickly enough to support his now-shaking body.

“Babe, what?” Erik asked, somewhat concerned. “Are you okay?”

Nicky nodded, still laughing and choking on air as he explained, enigmatically, “It’s not 4:30 in the morning!”

Clearly, they were both too tired for this, because Erik soon broke down into laughter as well. If propping each other up had been difficult before, it now proved impossible, and they sunk to the floor as a unit, still laughing uncontrollably. Nicky looked at Erik, tears forming in his eyes as he gasped in air past the giggles, and he said, “I really love you, you know.”

Erik nodded, attempting to suppress his own laughter. “I know,” he said, at once mirthful and somber. “Me too. There’s no one else I’d want to laugh in an airport with.” This sentence, of course, sent him spiraling back into hysterics.

This was how Andrew and Neil found them: slumped against one another in the middle of the airport, studying each other’s faces and erupting into occasional bursts of laughter that they didn’t have the breath for. “Do you think we should just leave them?” Andrew asked Neil in German, either unmindful of the possibility of Nicky and Erik overhearing, or hoping that they would.

Neil only responded with a look he may have adopted from Andrew’s repertoire, and moved close enough that he could kick the edge of Nicky’s shoe. “Are you ready to go?” he asked, though they clearly weren’t; they’d never even made it to baggage claim.

Still, Nicky nodded and he and Erik used some combination of Neil and each other to haul themselves to their feet. As soon as they were standing, however, they exchanged a look and began laughing again. Neil watched helplessly as they stumbled to a bench this time before collapsing on top of each other again.

“I am leaving all of you here,” Andrew announced. This only served to make Nicky and Erik laugh harder.

Neil looked at Andrew imploringly. He didn’t even bother addressing Andrew’s threat to leave, but he asked, “What do we do?”

Andrew raised a single eyebrow. “You invited them,” he said. “They are your problem. I am getting ice cream.” And then he wandered off, leaving Neil with two fully-grown men struggling to breathe on a bench. Neil worried that if he let them stay still for too long, they’d fall asleep there.

“Didn’t you sleep on the plane?” Neil asked, exasperated.

Nicky and Erik exchanged a look, possibly the first that hadn’t made them laugh since arriving. “Definitely not,” Erik replied. “We were… distracted.”

Neil frowned at them, uncomprehending, which did make them laugh. “Oh, Neil,” Nicky gasped. “Oh, Neil, you sweet, innocent child.”

Before Neil could ask for an explanation, Andrew was back with two suitcases in one hand and an ice cream cone in the other. He handed the latter of these to Neil and moved one suitcase to his newly freed hand before departing without a word.

Neil stared after him for a moment before looking back at Nicky and Erik on the bench, no longer laughing, but now on the edge of sleep. Neil quickly licked a bit of ice cream from the cone before it could dribble onto his hand, and then used it to gesture at them. “Time to go,” he directed.

“We need our bags,” Nicky mumbled, eyes drooping a little more than they had been a minute before.

“Andrew has them,” Neil said quickly, hoping that those were truly Nicky and Erik’s bags that Andrew had grabbed. “You just have to make it to the car.”

Nicky groaned loudly and peeled himself sluggishly off the bench. “I swear,” he grumbled, “time differences are going to be my downfall. Is this why you and Andrew never visit? I have to say – I don’t think I can hold it against you anymore.”

Neil rolled his eyes. “Just get Erik and follow me to the car. Before Andrew really does leave without us.”

Nicky groaned again and shook Erik awake. It didn’t take long before their two-person shuffle across the airport turned in a three-person shuffle with Neil doing most of the legwork. Neil was beginning to resent Andrew leaving him with his ice cream when Andrew reappeared and took both Nicky and the ice cream off his hands.

“Hurry up,” Andrew called over his shoulder as Neil stared after him. “I’m going to leave you behind.”

Neil just grinned and shifted Erik’s grip on his shoulder before following at the same slow pace that was all Erik seemed able to support. He didn’t believe Andrew for a second.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They all have breakfast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (This one is in Neil's POV, which should have been my first hint that I wasn't going to accomplish the ask... I'm putting off homework, so that's what you can thank for this second chapter getting put up.)
> 
> The words/phrases for this attempt were "comma" and "don't leave me."

Neil woke up at six in the morning, still used to his old team’s practice schedule. For whatever reason, Andrew’s team – no, _their_ team now – chose to start practice an hour later. Neil had gotten used to the slight change in time zones, but his internal sleep clock still had him getting up at six instead of seven. He had quickly gotten into the habit of slipping out of bed and making coffee before Andrew stumbled into the kitchen, complaining that Neil had woken him up. Today, however, Andrew was already gone.

Neil groaned to himself at the early hour after a late night discussing the details of Nicky and Erik’s visit, but he slid off the bed and headed towards the kitchen. When he reached his destination, Neil found said visitors at the table with Andrew, enjoying a breakfast of coffee and donuts.

“You’re up early,” Neil commented to their guests as he slid into the seat beside Andrew.

Erik shrugged. “Jet lag,” he explained, and Neil nodded sympathetically.

Neil looked at Andrew then, a tired smile his private way of saying “good morning.” Andrew pushed his cup of coffee over without a word, and Neil braced himself for the obscene amount of sugar Andrew typically added as he raised the mug to his lips. He looked at Andrew in surprise when the tide of liquid rushing over his tongue turned out to hold only a hint of sugar. “This is good,” he noted in Russian.

Andrew rolled his eyes. “Did you expect it to be bad?” he questioned. Neil shrugged and took another sip as Andrew got up and moved over to the counter.

Neil looked over at Nicky and Erik. “It’s still unfair when you use Russian,” Nicky complained, and Erik elbowed him playfully. Nicky elbowed back and they began to engage in something of a war.

“Did you sleep well?” Neil asked, hoping to end the squabble before it resulted in someone’s coffee being spilled. “Was the bed okay?”

Nicky broke off from his fight to nod. “Oh, yeah, it was great,” he said, sliding his eyes over to Erik with a sly smirk. “You know, last time we talked to Kevin, he said that you guys made him sleep on the couch last time he was here…”

Neil shrugged. “We didn’t have a guest bed then,” he explained.

Nicky’s eyebrows shot up. “Really? What made you get one now?”

Neil opened his mouth to answer, but Andrew beat him to it. “Neil said it would be cruel to make one of you sleep on the floor, and the couch is only big enough for one.”

The three of them looked mournfully at the small, sinking couch. Andrew took the opportunity to drop a plain bagel in front of Neil, already spread with a thin layer of cream cheese. Neil broke his staring contest with the couch to grin at him. “Thank you,” he said quietly in Russian.

“Seven hundred and thirty-seven,” Andrew replied, to Neil’s complete lack of surprise. He bit into his bagel.

Nicky looked back at them, frowning slightly. He didn’t comment, however, choosing to instead ask, “What are we doing today? Please tell me that it’s a tour of the city, and that it doesn’t involve the Exy stadium.”

“Too out of practice?” Andrew asked. “I’m sure Neil won’t hold it against you.”

Erik scoffed. “Are you kidding? He’s the best in the company’s weekend team! The best except for me, of course – I’m sure he just doesn’t want you to see his bitter humiliation.”

“Erik!” Nicky whined. “You weren’t supposed to tell them that!”

Neil and Andrew exchanged a look. Neil’s eyebrows suggested an immediate change of plans, and Andrew’s scowl suggested that he was not completely opposed, but he was going to pretend that he was. “I think we have some spare gear will fit you guys,” Neil said cheerfully. “Honestly, we haven’t gotten a chance to get on the court outside of practice since I joined the team. It’s really quite an experience in that stadium with just a couple of people. The news broadcasts really don’t do it justice.”

“Neil, no,” Nicky complained. “We are not going to an Exy court on our first day in the city!”

“I don’t know, Nicky,” Erik put in, a glint in his eye as he looked across the table at Neil. “I think it could be fun. Of course, if you don’t want to go… well, I guess it could just be the three of us, right guys?”

“What? Don’t leave me alone!” Nicky protested. He scowled at Andrew. “How are you not even putting up a fight over this?”

Andrew nodded at Neil as if this completely answered the question, and Neil grinned triumphantly. Erik grinned at them, too. “I wish Nicky gave in to me that easily!”

Nicky restarted the elbow war. “Hey,” he complained, “I listen to you! You know, when I want to.”

Erik rolled his eyes and swiftly outmaneuvered Nicky to capture him under his arm, nearly knocking the chair over as he tugged Nicky to his chest. He kissed the side of his forehead, and Nicky attempted a half-hearted, laughing escape. “I love you,” Erik murmured. “Even if you never listen to me.”

Nicky freed himself and shoved Erik’s shoulder gently. “Shut up,” he muttered. And then, after a minute, “I love you, too.”

Neil shook his head at their antics. He’d finished off the coffee Andrew had given him, so he reached over to take Andrew’s new cup from his unresisting hands. This time, he did wince at the sugar levels, but he took a couple of sips and handed it back. He looked back across the table to find Nicky watching.

“I still find it so weird that you do that,” Nicky said. “It’s like… I don’t know. Like if Aaron and Katelyn did it. That would be weird, right?”

Neil and Andrew exchanged a glance, because Aaron and Katelyn _had_ done precisely that the last time they’d seen each other. Nicky groaned and put his head on the table. “The Minyard twins are secretly romantics!” he lamented. “Where was this information when we were in college?”

Erik laughed. “Does it really surprise you so much?” he asked, reaching over to wipe a bit of jelly from Nicky’s donut off of his face.

Nicky scrunched up his nose and leaned away. He caught sight of a stack of mail on the counter and latched onto a new topic. “And that’s another thing!” He looked at Andrew defiantly. “You never answer my letters! Why don’t you ever answer my letters?”

Andrew was unconcerned. “Three reasons,” he replied, but didn’t elaborate.

Neil rolled his eyes and supplied for him, “He says that letters are a waste of time in this century.”

“But you don’t answer my emails, either!” Nicky complained.

Andrew nodded decisively. “Reasons two and three,” he said.

“Which would be?” Nicky pressed.

Andrew considered him for a moment, possibly just appreciating his agitation. “You don’t use enough commas,” he said finally. “Your grammar is really quite terrible.”  
Erik stifled a laugh, and Nicky shot him a look of betrayal. “Neil answers my letters,” he muttered, pouting into his coffee.

“Reason number three,” Andrew confirmed.

Nicky scowled. “That’s not fair,” he grumbled, but he couldn’t really seem to think of an argument to that. Silence descended upon the table for a while, and Andrew offered Neil a piece of his donut. Erik offered Nicky a napkin.

“So,” Erik said, grinning over his shoulder as he headed over to refill his coffee, “anyone up for Exy?” Nicky groaned and banged his head on the table.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Andrew is watching Exy? What?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is relatively short. I don't know - I was tired that night. (Also, this contains one of those times where Nicky's assessment of Andrew makes me sad.)
> 
> The words for this one were "circular" and "kill."

At three-thirty in the afternoon, Nicky woke up from an ill-advised nap. He really should have known better than to mess with his sleep schedule more than he already had; the brief rest had only left him feeling more tired. Erik was right to have picked museum-hopping with Neil, honestly. Although, Nicky considered, he probably would have fallen asleep from boredom at a museum anyways.

Making a face when he couldn’t get back to sleep, Nicky swung his legs off the bed and padded towards Neil and Andrew’s living room. He could hear low cheering emitting from the television as he got closer – that peculiar sort of cheering that only seemed to make appearances on televised sports broadcasts – and concluded that Neil and Erik must have returned from their excursion early. But when Nicky rounded the corner, he found only Andrew on the couch.

The television was off before Nicky could think to speak. “You’re awake,” Andrew observed, managing to make it sound like an inconvenience.

Nicky nodded. “Yeah, it’s probably better if I don’t sleep too long now, or I’ll be up all night.” Andrew stared as if this information meant nothing to him. It probably didn’t, Nicky thought; Andrew didn’t really care about much beyond its entertainment value. Undeterred, Nicky continued, “What were you watching there?”

Andrew’s death glare was liable to kill him before Andrew ever found the motivation to do it with his knives. “Nothing,” he ground out.

Nicky was well aware that that answer was a complete lie, but he wasn’t going to risk death without Neil here to save him. He poked at the carpet with his toes as he contemplated what new direction to take the conversation. Finally, he asked, “Are you looking forward to playing with Neil again?” Technically, Neil had joined with Andrew’s team almost a month ago, but he had yet to play a match. Supposedly, he was going to be a striker sub in the second half of this coming Saturday’s game, which was part of the reason Nicky and Erik had delayed their visit until now. It was going to be amazing to see Neil and Andrew on the same team for the first time since the Foxes, and it was probably going to be a media frenzy as well, but it seemed like good timing for a celebratory visit. “You must be excited, right? To be on the same side again?”

Andrew’s glare could have melted steel. “Why are you still here?” he asked.

Nicky answered with a noise of offense. “Rude,” he said. “What did I ever do to you?”

Andrew didn’t bother to answer but heaved himself off the couch and headed into the kitchen. As soon as he was out of the room, Nicky launched himself on his vacated seat and jabbed the on button on the remote. The TV came back to life on an Exy game. It only took a minute for Nicky to realize that this was a recording of a game Neil had played with his old team a few months ago (the blue-and-white jersey sporting the name “Josten” was a big hint).

Nicky grinned to himself and leaned back on the couch as he switched the TV to cable before Andrew could come back and kill him. He made a circular trek through the channels before settling on a rerun of some show he’d watched during college. And if, when Andrew came back, Nicky relinquished the remote without a word and let Andrew change it back to the Exy game… well, Nicky wasn’t going to be stupid enough to broadcast that information until after he was safely back in Germany.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Neil, Andrew, Nicky, and Erik take a trip to zoo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This feels like the most ridiculous plot decision I made in this entire thing, and it isn't really that great. But [Little Penguins](http://perthzoo.wa.gov.au/animals-plants/australia/penguin-plunge/little-penguin/) are cool, so whatever.
> 
> The words were "fairy" and "people skills."

One of the things Nicky had missed most about the US was the way that Neil seemed able to talk Andrew into literally anything. Sometimes, he thought that he was building it up in his head – that Neil couldn’t _really_ be that persuasive. The fact that Andrew, in his all-black clothing, was currently baking under the sun in a near-stagnant line outside of the zoo at nine o’clock in the morning begged to differ.

It took an eternity to reach the ticket window, in Nicky’s opinion. Far too long a wait for most things other than the promise of a day of holding Erik’s hand as they looked at cute animals – that might have made it worth it. He was also slightly looking forward to seeing whether Neil could convince Andrew to do anything more than sit on a bench – he had money riding on that one.

Although, it seemed that Nicky would already be cashing in on the Andrew-doing-things bet, because it was Andrew, not Neil, who was stepping up to the ticket window and requesting four tickets. And not only that, but he was handing over a membership ID card as well. Nicky was screaming inside of his head.

Neil glanced over and raised an eyebrow. “Well, you didn’t think we sat at home and did nothing all the time, did you?”

Nicky, because he had never been able to resist a setup like that, replied, “Well, I didn’t think you did _nothing_ …” Andrew’s death glare was completely ignored in favor of Erik’s snort. Nicky smiled and slipped his hand into Erik’s.

Neil, ever the savior, tapped the edge of the tickets being crushed in Andrew’s hand and gestured for him to lead the way into the park. Andrew, unsurprisingly, obliged, passing straight by the stand of park maps, though Neil stopped to grab three of them and handed two to Nicky and Erik.

Andrew stopped short directly in front of the tiger exhibit, turning to face Nicky and Erik. “You two are on your own,” he said, and then he turned away and resumed walking.

Neil rolled his eyes to Nicky and Erik like this was an inside joke they were in on. “We’ll meet up at the café at noon,” he said. “Number six on your maps.” Then he headed off in the same direction that Andrew had gone, all without taking a single glance at his map.

“Well,” Erik said, “I think we’ve been ditched.”

Nicky nodded slowly. “Yeah,” he agreed, feeling the gears turning in his head as he stared after Neil and Andrew. “Do you get the feeling that they come here a lot?”

Erik laughed. “Maybe it’s their thing,” he suggested.

Nicky frowned. “It’s Andrew and Neil,” he pointed out. “They don’t have a _thing_.”

Erik shrugged. “You never know,” he said. “I think their relationship is not quite as atypical as you think it is.”

Nicky made a face and unfolded his map. “What do you want to see first?” he asked, changing the subject in an attempt to get his thoughts out of Andrew and Neil’s relationship before he lost his head, one way or another. “Wolves? Foxes?”

Nicky jumped away as Erik darted out an elbow for that last suggestion. Erik opened his own map and studied it for a minute before deciding, “Polar bears. Definitely polar bears.”

Sighing more dramatically than Erik’s small obsession with polar bears warranted, Nicky found the exhibit on the map and traced the path out for himself. “Fine,” he agreed as if it was a major inconvenience. “But only because it takes us past the tigers.”

Erik looked pointedly at the tigers directly beside them and laughed. He took Nicky’s hand again. “I don’t know why I put up with you,” he said cheerfully as he started them down the path.

They did not, however, make it all the way to the polar bears. They certainly would have (perhaps with a couple of brief diversions) had Nicky not suddenly stopped short just before passing the penguin exhibit. Right there, sitting on a bench in front of the exhibit were Andrew and Neil. Neil had his legs stretched out in front of him while Andrew was more hunched, but Andrew’s thigh was pressed against Neil’s, and his arm would brush against Neil as he used it to gesture as he spoke.

Nicky widened his eyes at Erik imploringly. Erik sighed and shook his head, but he allowed Nicky to drag them a little closer while still avoiding being spotted. They were just close enough that they could make out the majority of what Andrew was saying.

“All I’m saying,” Andrew said, “is that they’re a lot like Kevin.”

Neil snorted. “What, the fairy penguins?”

Nicky did not need to see Andrew’s face to know that he was glaring at Neil right now. “Seven hundred and forty-six,” he growled.

Neil was probably grinning like an idiot, Nicky thought. “Okay, okay,” he said. “Fine. So, how are the fairy penguins like Kevin?”

Andrew gestured to the tank. “They’re molting,” he said. “They can’t go in the water, so they’re hiding in their burrows.”

Nicky followed Andrew’s gesture and spotted a couple of penguin heads poking out from inside of a small cave. There were some more active penguins in the enclosure, but these were clearly the ones Andrew was pointing out.

“So, like when Kevin spent that week on our couch after he sprained his ankle playing your team?” Neil observed. “That seems like a good comparison.” Nicky was dying from the urge to laugh. “It doesn’t explain why you like them, though.”

Andrew turned to Neil and Nicky had to duck back to avoid being spotted. “They have absolutely no people skills,” he replied. “I am hoping to see one of the crap on whoever has to come feed them.”

Erik leaned close to Nicky’s ear and whispered, “No _penguin_ skills, he means,” and Nicky couldn’t contain his laughter any longer.

Andrew whipped his head around, murder in his eyes. Needless to say, Nicky and Erik didn’t stop running until they reached the polar bears.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Neil is making pancakes for dinner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is really the first of these that is more than tenuously connected to the previous installments. So, hooray for plot or plot-like creatures!
> 
> The words were "curtain" and "almost Canadian."

Neil made pancakes for dinner, which was probably meant to be a peace offering to Andrew. It had seemed strange to Nicky when Neil had announced it, since as far he could remember, Neil had only attempted pancakes six times in his life, and each occurrence had nearly ended in flames.

Honestly, Nicky had tried to get him to give it up after the second try – watching someone almost burn down a kitchen rapidly becomes more concerning than it is entertaining – but Neil tended to be stubborn. He supposed that Neil had had to get better at making pancakes if he’d wanted to live with Andrew Minyard. It hadn’t really occurred to Nicky before that Neil’s determination may have been rooted in this: calm, perfect dinners where Andrew was the closest to genuinely smiling Nicky could ever imagine him getting.

Of course, this near-smile was only present because Andrew was watching Neil cook the pancakes, and he hadn’t yet realized that Nicky was in the room. This was precisely what had gotten him into trouble at the zoo – precisely why Neil needed to create a peace offering in the first place (well, that and the fact that Nicky had made it worse by pointing out that they’d been speaking a language he could understand) – but Nicky couldn’t seem to look away. He’d never thought that he would see his cousin so close to happy.

Nicky hesitated for a moment longer, and then he kicked the apartment door closed with a bang. Andrew was twice as far from Neil within a second, an irritated scowl settled on his face for an audience that didn’t believe it. Neil smirked at him and popped a chocolate chip into his mouth. “Did you get the syrup?” he asked Nicky.

“Yeah,” Nicky said slowly. He watched Andrew carefully for any sudden moves as he went to put the bag on the table, but all that he saw was Andrew reaching around Neil’s back for the bag of chocolate chips.

“Vermont, right?” Andrew asked, almost civilly.

Nicky froze; he hadn’t really thought to check. He pulled the bottle out of the bag, dragging out the action because he simply didn’t want to know. He grimaced at the bottle. “Canada,” he replied guiltily, flinching away from Andrew’s emotionless stare.

Andrew turned on Neil. “You didn’t tell him what kind of syrup to get,” he stated.

Neil bit his lip to contain laughter as he shrugged. “Oops,” he offered. “You know, it honestly didn’t occur to me – it’s so automatic at this point. I assumed that he would know.”

Andrew scowled at the offending syrup. “This is why you need to go grocery shopping when I tell you to.”

“Is it really such a big difference?” Neil asked. “Vermont is almost Canadian anyways, right?”

Nicky started to back away; he may not have known exactly what kind of syrup to get, but he did know that Andrew got serious about his sugars. To his surprise, however, Andrew didn’t escalate the near-argument, but simply glared at the syrup some more, as if he was transferring all of his irritation to the inanimate object instead of Neil.

“Seven hundred and fifty-one,” he said finally, his voice not blank, but not angry. He looked up at Neil. “It will last perhaps two meals,” he observed, which seemed like an underestimate to Nicky, before he remembered that Andrew liked his pancakes with so much syrup that he had to eat them in a bowl.

“So, you’ll live,” Neil summarized.

Andrew cast him a slightly annoyed look. “If I have to,” he ground out. He held out a few of his pilfered chocolate chips to Neil, who popped them into his mouth before snatching away the bag and turning back to the task of making sure their dinner didn’t burn.

“You’ll ruin your appetite,” Neil informed him.

Andrew grumbled something in Russian that made Neil smile and shoot back something equally in Russian. Andrew crossed his arms and said “Seven fifty-two, Josten,” but there was something about the set of the skin around his eyes that made him look pleased.

Nicky felt like he was looking a reality through some sort of curtain – one that distorted everything that he had assumed to be true. This kitchen suddenly felt so much more like a private residence, or a private moment, and Nicky couldn’t help but feel as if he was intruding. Did Andrew and Neil even realize he was still here?

“Nicky,” Neil said quietly, answering the unspoken question without looking away from Andrew. “Why don’t you go join Erik in the guest room? Dinner will be ready in a half hour.”

Nicky wanted to point out that pancakes didn’t take that long to cook, but one look at the foreign and almost affectionate expression on Andrew’s face had him scrambling over his own feet to escape their weird, alternate dimension. This had to be the strangest vacation he’d ever taken (and that included that one time in Paris). These revelations were simultaneously unsettling and fitting, and Nicky hoped that he and Erik looked just as confusing to outsiders as Neil and Andrew did to him. Some things were meant to belong to two people alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: _I_ was so close to escalating that near-argument, but I reigned myself in because _fluff_.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ~~Surprise!~~ They eat pancakes for dinner. Plus, there's some stuff after dinner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These last two are comparatively long - just over 1400 words each. This was supposed to be short, but this is what happens when I start with an image of where I want to end up and have to write my way there.
> 
> The words were "slowly" and "bacteria."

Dinner went relatively well, in spite of Nicky’s misstep in syrup purchasing. Granted, Andrew largely ignored Nicky and Erik throughout the meal, but the main takeaway was that he didn’t threaten to throw them out of the apartment. Anytime he looked in their direction, he seemed annoyed, but there was less sincerity to it than there had been earlier.

Nicky, Erik, and Neil conversed over Germany for a good portion of the meal – coworkers and dream apartments and favorite date spots. “I think you guys would like the park,” Erik said. “It’s quiet, private.” There was a twinkle in his eyes as he glanced over at Nicky. “Absolutely everything _that one_ hates. No chance of him interrupting.”

Neil smiled over at Andrew, currently attempting to dissect his syrup-soaked pancakes with a knife. “When’s the last time we went to a park?” he asked. “After that one game?”

Andrew hummed thoughtfully and put his knife down with more force than was strictly necessary. Neil immediately slid the entire plate away and began cutting the pancakes with a more effective hand. Andrew glared at him, but he didn’t say anything other than, “June.”

Neil tipped his head back in realization. “Oh, right,” he said. “That was nice. We should go back there.”

“Not on your life,” Andrew replied. “There is a reason that you don’t live there anymore.”

Neil laughed. “It was fun, at least,” he said. “You have to admit that it was fun.”

“Seven fifty-six,” Andrew responded, sliding his plate back and snatching his fork, though he let Neil keep the knife. He began jabbing at the pieces Neil had cut for him and shoving them into his mouth. Only Andrew Minyard, Nicky thought, was capable of making eating pancakes look aggressive.

“Wait,” Nicky said, glancing between the two men opposite him, “what happened in June?”

Neil and Andrew exchanged a look. “Seven hundred fifty-seven,” Andrew growled. Neil just smirked, an expression which did not leave his face when he looked back at Nicky. It certainly ruined his mock-innocent shrug, though.

Nicky sighed and fell against Erik. “I am so left out,” he lamented. “No one ever tells me anything! I have to read it all in the papers!” He lifted off Erik’s shoulder just so that he could collapse onto it more dramatically. “I hate reading!”

Erik snorted. “Babe, that’s kind of a big part of your job.”

“But I get paid for _that_ reading,” he whined. “Who’s paying me to keep informed on the lives of the people I care about?”

“You’re welcome to stop anytime,” Andrew informed him without feeling. He didn’t even look up from his plate.

Neil shot Andrew a cool look before turning back to Nicky. “Obviously,” he said, “the press never has the full story.” Neil, Nicky had learned from his far-off observation, had developed a small rivalry with certain reporters, occasionally outright accusing them of abuse of power and bias when they left out portions of interviews or statements Neil had given them. And, since this was Neil Josten, “small rivalry” actually meant a series of drawn-out debates that no news station had the time to air the entirety of.

Nicky rolled his eyes. “Fine, fine,” he said, “leave me out of your lives. I don’t care.”

Erik shook his head and leaned his forehead against Nicky’s. “It’s not like we share everything, either,” he murmured. “Unless you went ahead and sent out an email blast about what we did to get kicked out of the art museum?”

Nicky turned bright red at the reminder. No, he definitely had not shared that story with anyone. “Museums are stupid anyways,” he muttered.

Erik kissed the side of Nicky’s temple before gently moving him off of his shoulder. “How do you feel about Exy, though?” he teased as he brought his plate to the sink. “Isn’t Kevin’s team playing Thea’s tonight?”

Nicky’s eyes widened and he sprang from his seat. “Holy fuck, I forgot! I wouldn’t miss that for the world! Erik, why didn’t you remind me?”

“I just did,” Erik scoffed, returning to take Nicky’s plate to the sink as well, which was good, because Nicky had been about to forget about it in his rush to the living room.

“We’re recording it,” Neil informed them. He stood and brought his own plate to the sink. “I’ll bring it back to the beginning.”

“Yes!” Nicky exclaimed in triumph. He was almost out of the room too quickly to catch Neil pausing to say something to Andrew is quietly Russian. Nicky hesitated in the doorways, watching as Andrew grabbed Neil’s hand briefly and used the back of it as a napkin. Neil laughed and wiped it off on Andrew’s cheek. Nicky shook it out of his head; he was never going to understand their relationship, not in a million years.

“Ready?” Neil asked when he joined them in the living room a minute later.

“Is Andrew joining us?” Erik asked.

Neil shook his head. “He’s going to finish dinner. Plus, he doesn’t really like watching Exy.” Nicky raised an eyebrow at that one, but didn’t comment. “I can show him the highlights later.”

Erik nodded, accepting that answer. Nicky settled onto the couch, nestled into his side and watched Neil set up the game to watch. To their delight, Kevin and Thea were both starting; it took less than twenty seconds for Thea to slam Kevin into a wall.

About halfway through the first half, Kevin got subbed out, and Thea’s coach called her off as well. Thea’s coach was notorious for playing to the press, and it was likely that he was waiting to see when Kevin would be back on the court, for the sake of maximal dramatic effect. At this point, however, the game became just another Exy match, and without any players that Nicky knew, it was hardly something that he hadn’t seen a thousand times before. He got up to get a drink of water.

To say that Nicky was surprised to find Andrew in the kitchen would have been a lie, but he was fairly surprised to find him standing in front of the sink. Andrew Minyard, it seemed, was washing the dishes.

“Well, fuck,” Nicky said. “Why were you never this helpful when I was living with you?”

Andrew’s raised eyebrow asked whether Nicky really needed an answer to that question. “Why do what you can get someone else to do for you?” he challenged.

Nicky smirked. “Is that why Neil’s in here doing the dishes for you?” he shot back. He instantly regretted the looseness of his tongue, but he had gotten used to knowing that there wasn’t much that Andrew could do in terms of retaliation from across the ocean. From across the kitchen, however…

But Andrew only continued studiously scrubbing nonexistent bacteria from the already-clean plates, apparently unconcerned with Nicky’s comment. It was a little disconcerting. “I would have thought you guys would have a dishwasher,” Nicky commented, mostly because he needed Andrew to say something.

Andrew turned to him slowly. “There are only two of us,” he said. “We don’t need it. We just take turns.”

Nicky latched onto this piece of information like a dying man to life raft. “You take turns? Do you have a schedule?”

In a shocking twist, Andrew glared at him. “We don’t need a schedule,” he growled. “Some nights I do the dishes; some nights he does. I don’t see why we’d need to keep track of that.”

Nicky shrugged. “I don’t know – for equality, maybe,” he suggested, but the way Andrew was staring at him seemed to communicate that the equality in his and Neil’s relationship had nothing to do with who did the dishes. It was more of an equality of words, of gestures unasked for but given away regardless. And, yes, maybe sometimes the dishes fell under the latter category, but what these two had was so much more than that. Nicky thought that he was closer to understanding Neil and Andrew than he had ever been before. It was really quite incredible, he thought, to realize just how much a single visit could enhance his perspective.

But maybe this wasn’t the best time to ponder the idea, because Andrew was currently watching him as if he was willing to murder over a single verbal misstep. So, Nicky got his glass of water, and he went back to sit on the couch. He would discuss his cousin with Erik later.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Neil and Andrew are getting ready for a game.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Took me this long to actually address how Nicky feels about Andrew and Neil's domesticity! ~~Wow, I actually really like this part.~~
> 
> The words for this part were "fallen" and "rerun."

By Saturday, Nicky and Erik had gotten used to the time difference. The exhausted inability to sleep from the start of the week was beginning to seem like a distant dream, but it wasn’t one that Nicky was looking forward to replaying in reverse upon their return to Germany. However, that wasn’t something that they were going to have to worry about for another week, and the length of this vacation seemed to make the challenge of it more bearable. Family was worth a little lost sleep, at least as far as Nicky was concerned.

So, by Saturday, Nicky and Erik had gotten used to the time difference, but they were not used to the chaos of game days. It had been years since Nicky had even gone to see a game for professional or even collegiate Exy in person, let alone played in one. He didn’t remember it being such an ordeal to prepare for, but perhaps that was because Neil and Andrew’s apartment was a good deal larger than the dorm rooms at Fox Tower, and it was apparently quite simple to misplace every single component of Andrew’s uniform.

“Neil,” Andrew shouted from halfway inside of the hall closet, “where did you put my spare left glove?”

“You’re supposed to keep the spares in your locker,” Neil called from the kitchen. On the couch, Nicky and Erik exchanged a look of amusement. They were watching last week’s game over again, but Neil and Andrew attempting to get ready was turning out to be a more entertaining show.

Andrew stomped into the kitchen. “Well, I needed them last week,” he said.

Neil held out a spoonful of cake batter in favor of answering right away. Andrew glared at the spoon for a minute, but he eventually closed his mouth around it. “Did you check under the bed?” Neil asked.

Andrew drew back and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Seven hundred sixty-two,” he said, leaving the kitchen to check the bedroom. He was already halfway down the hallway when he called without looking back, “Put that goddamn spoon in the sink!” Nicky realized belatedly that Neil had been about to put it back in the bowl of cake mix. He’d never thought that he would be so grateful for something Andrew said.

Neil shrugged and dropped the spoon into the sink with a clank. He abandoned the cake mix for a minute and wandered into the living room. “Please tell me he doesn’t have to tell you every time,” Nicky pleaded.

Neil looked back at the kitchen. “He’s doing it for your sake,” he said. “Neither of us care.” Nicky didn’t know whether to be disgusted or skeptical. Neil didn’t give him a chance to decide, but asked, “What game are you watching?”

“Oh,” Erik said, “it’s a rerun. Your team last week.”

Neil nodded. “Have you seen it before? Did you notice Andrew cooperating with the backliners?”

Nicky and Erik exchanged a glance because, well, no, they hadn’t. Neil held out a hand for the remote and rewound to one of the most action-packed moments of the game, as the other team’s backliners made an aggressive move on Neil’s fellow strikers. Neil wasn’t watching that, though – he gestured at Andrew, leaning out of the goal only slightly, but clearly talking to his backliners. Suddenly, the other team’s lack of goals after that point made a lot more sense.

“You’re supposed to watch the strikers,” Andrew said, startling Nicky and Erik with his reentry. He held up his glove. “Remind me why I always listen when you tell me to hand you my gear?”

“Remind me why you take your gear home in the first place,” Neil shot back.

Andrew scowled at him. “I am finishing your cake without you,” he announced, shoving the glove into Neil’s waiting hands, though he had just complained about Neil consistently losing his gear. Highlighting this fact, Neil immediately dropped the glove and remote onto the coffee table and trailed after Andrew into the kitchen.

“Hey, why are you guys making a cake, anyways?” Nicky called after them.

Andrew stopped short and turned to face him. Neil very nearly ran into him, but he managed to stop a breath away. Andrew flicked him a glance, but didn’t comment before turning back to Nicky. “We’re celebrating,” he said in the least celebratory voice Nicky had ever heard. Neil only grinned, unintimidated by Andrew’s menacing tone. He whispered something in Andrew’s ear and slipped around him. Andrew’s lip curled into something like disgust. “You’re not funny, Josten,” he said, but he abandoned his previous trajectory and joined Nicky and Erik on the couch instead.

Nicky glanced at Andrew. “Are you ready for the game?” he asked.

Andrew looked at him without emotion and chose not to answer his question. Instead, he gestured to one of his teammates on the screen, a striker who had fallen hard. The refs stopped play and some sort of medical professional came out to evaluate her and eventually help her off the court. “Coach is going to pull her from tonight’s lineup,” Andrew predicted.

Neil poked his head in from the kitchen at Andrew’s voice. He had somehow managed to get covered in cake batter within the last minute. “What, Mira?” he asked. “She said she was fine.”

Andrew shot him a look he couldn’t argue with, and Nicky spoke the same words that Andrew was communicating without the use of his voice: “Yeah, because we all know that Exy players always mean it when they say they’re fine.”

Neil shrugged, conceding the point. “She’s starting first half, right?” he asked, trying and failing to not sound hopeful.

“Fucking junkie,” Andrew muttered.

“You’re playing first half, too,” Neil pointed out needlessly. Andrew did not bother acknowledging the statement, and Neil added, “I’ve missed being on the same court as you.”

“You are on the same court as me all the time,” Andrew countered.

“During a game,” Neil amended. “I’ve missed being on the court with you during a game.”

“Seven sixty-three,” Andrew said, impatiently getting off the couch and forcing Neil back into the kitchen. “You are never going to finish that thing at this rate.”

“I thought you said you didn’t want it,” Neil said.

“I said I didn’t care,” Andrew corrected. He reached out and swiped a bit of cake batter from Neil’s cheek and stuck it in his mouth. It was at once revolting and heartwarming. Nicky had never thought that he could call Andrew _sentimental_ , but he couldn’t seem to think of another way to describe the way that Andrew held his hand loosely over Neil’s shoulder as he pushed him gently back to the bowl of cake batter and commanded, “Finish.”

Neil took Andrew’s hand and kissed the side of his fingers before turning back to the bowl of batter. “Can you grease the pan?” he asked. Andrew glared at him, but obliged without complaint. A minute later, Neil looked up from the batter again. “Oh, yeah, Dan and Matt might stop by tonight. They said they were going to try to make it to the game.”

Andrew scowled. “They’ll have to sleep on the floor,” he said.

Neil laughed and slid across the floor in his socked feet, holding the bowl of batter. He nearly fell, but Andrew reached out and caught him. His hand didn’t fall from Neil’s hip as Neil poured the batter into the pan. Andrew kissed the side of Neil’s jaw before taking the cake pan from him and sliding it into the oven. Then he silently took the bowl to the sink and began washing it.

Nicky blinked at the calm domesticity of it all. It was like Neil and Andrew had completely forgotten they were here. Did he and Erik ever look like this? He looked at Erik. “They’re really in love, aren’t they?” he said, a little bit in awe. He would have never thought that one of his cousins could have found their way into a healthy and loving relationship like this one, especially not Andrew, and definitely not both of them. There were so many stereotypes out there about people with bad past creating their own bad futures, but Foxes were fighters, and they weren’t taking that lying down. They were overwriting their past woes with present wonders, one day at a time. Nicky couldn’t even recognize the scared, miserable kid he’d been when he’d first met Erik.

Erik nudged Nicky’s shoulder as he laughed. He kissed Nicky’s cheek, and then his lips. He said, “Where have _you_ been for the last six years?”


End file.
